Work Search Requirements
My dad hated work before hating work was cool. His first job in the United States was as a clerk at the San Jose Department of Motor Vehicles on Alma Street. It was 1975 and the position paid $6 an hour. When he became a driver’s license examiner, he earned a few pennies more. Though he was hired for his Vietnamese, he couldn’t keep up with needing to speak English to the DMV’s majority white clientele. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese test takers couldn’t drive. Still, they insisted he pass them anyway, citing compatriotism over common sense and safety.
“The Beauty Is Where the Play Is”: A Conversation with Paige Clark on “She is Haunted”
Many of Clark’s protagonists are mixed-race Asian women who grapple with how their heritage shapes their relationships with friends, family members, and lovers. More than a few of them are named Elisabeth (or variations thereof) and share overlapping histories and similar lexicons—as if they were parts of a single consciousness refracted across time and space.